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Member Advocacy

LGFCU is all about looking out for your best interests by keeping you updated on current legislation that may impact your finances. Excessive regulations intended for Wall Street actually cost local credit unions $7.2 billion every year — more than $71 per member. There’s a great need for regulation that is based on common sense. These three one-size-fits-all regulations have failed credit unions and their members recently:

Mortgage regulations

Protecting home buyers from the Wall Street bankers who fleeced millions of people and wrecked the economy is good public policy. But Washington, D.C. lawmakers imposed the new mortgage rules on all lenders, even local credit unions that engaged in responsible lending.

The result: Higher costs, longer waits and more paperwork for credit union members seeking home loans. The government even requires your Credit Union to collect more of your personal financial data than is needed. That’s not common sense.

Small-dollar loans

Reining in abusive predatory lenders is a good idea. But federal legislators instead drafted new rules that make it harder for consumers to get affordable small-dollar loans from their credit union to pay for emergency expenditures for their car or home, or even for unexpected health bills.

The result: Credit union members in need are driven to the predatory lenders we’ve been working to stop from operating in North Carolina and across the nation. That’s not common sense.

Overdraft transfer service policies

We understand sometimes members mistakenly overspend or need the convenience of an overdraft service while in line at the grocery store or elsewhere. The government is writing new rules that will make it harder for your Credit Union to extend overdraft transfer service to its members, even for responsible consumers who choose to pay for the service. That’s not common sense.

What would common sense regulation look like?

While cracking down on the abuses of Wall Street banks is a good idea, lawmakers in Washington must realize applying the same one-size-fits-all regulation to local financial institutions such as credit unions makes no sense.

Trusting member-owned credit unions to know their members and provide them the financial services they need is a better approach. That’s just common sense.

Stay informed and take action

Get information on specific legislative and policy ideas, and how you can help move state and federal lawmakers toward common sense regulation.